Eternity Avowed - Obsidian's first person action-RPG in the Pillars of Eternity setting - coming February 18th

[Infinitron]

It seems as if they have taken the bold strategy of making games for the customers they want to exist, rather than the customers that do exist.

Let's see if it pays off! It may be the first time this year! Or even this decade.

They make games for themselves and hope they find an audience, same as Larian and nearly every other dev.

It seems uniquely difficult to get story-driven single player videogame developers to develop games with the sole focus of optimizing towards what their audiences want. They aren't paid enough for that. If they were looking for steady paychecks and audience engagement alone, they'd make multiplayer or mobile slop.

As players, we have to find the creatives who are "naturally" in tune with our tastes, and there aren't many of them. In other words, despite so many games flopping these days, it's a seller's market.

 

[Roguey]

Obsidian doesn't make games for racists.

How do you explain both of the games having a setting that has no Africans, Middle-easterners or Asians then? Even old school DND and sword & sorcery has some diversity in that regard. Meanwhile PoE1 setting is just various European cultures and basically savage islanders with a culture that is failing them against more advanced civilizations. Meanwhile it has an extreme attention to detail with regards to Old English, Celtic, Germanic and Mediterranean stuff that with headcanoning that would make even more elaborate hyperborea headlarper blush. No, Vailians don't count because they are obviously not African in the slightest, it is obviously some sort of autism that made them black because the islands are near equator, otherwise their culture is wholly Italian, with Old Vailia being more like South Italy & Spain and Vailian Republics being more alike North Italy.

Sawyer's history degree was specifically focused on Europe. He doesn't feel comfortable writing about what he doesn't know and he didn't have the time and inclination to learn about the history of the Asian and African continents to the degree with which he learned about Europe.

In addition to that, any depiction of tribal Africans gives liberals the ick.

Honest Hearts made me uncomfortable. What was the purpose of using every negative trope related to indigenous people in one game (cargo cults, mighty whitey, the ignorance and naivete of the NPCs and even naming a quest after the white man's burden)?

I don't think it would have been particularly interesting to suggest that, contrary to how the majority of various low-tech, low-contact cultures around the world have dealt with the arrival of cultures with significantly higher technology and scientific knowledge -- that the tribes of the Great Basin have some special psychological makeup that inures them to the same sorts of cultural processes.

(in the many years since 2011, Sawyer has bent the knee and apologized for this depiction in Honest Hearts)

 

[Vulpes]

How do you explain both of the games having a setting that has no Africans, Middle-easterners or Asians then? Even old school DND and sword & sorcery has some diversity in that regard. Meanwhile PoE1 setting is just various European cultures and basically savage islanders with a culture that is failing them against more advanced civilizations. Meanwhile it has an extreme attention to detail with regards to Old English, Celtic, Germanic and Mediterranean stuff that with headcanoning that would make even more elaborate hyperborea headlarper blush. No, Vailians don't count because they are obviously not African in the slightest, it is obviously some sort of autism that made them black because the islands are near equator, otherwise their culture is wholly Italian, with Old Vailia being more like South Italy & Spain and Vailian Republics being more alike North Italy.

>Vailians
>Not niggers
Are you fucking blind?

 

[Curious_Tongue]

I forgot about this game.

 

[Poseidon00]

It seems as if they have taken the bold strategy of making games for the customers they want to exist, rather than the customers that do exist.

Let's see if it pays off! It may be the first time this year! Or even this decade.

They make games for themselves and hope they find an audience, same as Larian and nearly every other dev.

It seems uniquely difficult to get story-driven single player videogame developers to develop games with the sole focus of optimizing towards what their audiences want. They aren't paid enough for that. If they were looking for steady paychecks and audience engagement alone, they'd make multiplayer or mobile slop.

As players, we have to find the creatives who are "naturally" in tune with our tastes, and there aren't many of them. In other words, despite so many games flopping these days, it's a seller's market.

So true

Which is why I take delight in mocking the left-wing developers who go very far out of their way to make the entire industry unfriendly to any based developer who might want to try their hand at breaking in.

 

[Paul_cz]

Is this codex? Am I being trolled? Is this bizzaro land?

 

[Nostaljaded]

Is avowed's portraits better than this animal-themed doujin eroge?

(have to go out-of-the-way to find something comparable in doujin circle with its 'exotic' hairstyles)

 

[FreeKaner]

he didn't have the time and inclination to learn about the history of the Asian and African continents to the degree with which he learned about Europe.

Why would that be I wonder? It takes a special kind of focus to learn a lot about 16th century Holy Roman Empire and not know even the slightest thing about say Ottoman Empire and North Africa at the very least. Much like most American liberals, he professes to not be "racist" because that's wrongthink while actually not even bothering to learn even the most basic stuff about anywhere else. It's then an easy cope out to state that you don't know enough about disconnected Inner African tribes or uncontacted peoples of Amazon and Southeast Asia to write anything but extremely detailed stuff about culture and language of Germanic Elves from hyperborea while that's only a minor element in either games.

 

[ferratilis]

I forgot about this game.

So did I. To make things worse, I also forgot about KCD2 after that gay drama, and don't really feel like playing it anymore.

 

[Larianshill]

Obsidian doesn't make games for racists.

How do you explain both of the games having a setting that has no Africans, Middle-easterners or Asians then? Even old school DND and sword & sorcery has some diversity in that regard. Meanwhile PoE1 setting is just various European cultures and basically savage islanders with a culture that is failing them against more advanced civilizations. Meanwhile it has an extreme attention to detail with regards to Old English, Celtic, Germanic and Mediterranean stuff that with headcanoning that would make even more elaborate hyperborea headlarper blush. No, Vailians don't count because they are obviously not African in the slightest, it is obviously some sort of autism that made them black because the islands are near equator, otherwise their culture is wholly Italian, with Old Vailia being more like South Italy & Spain and Vailian Republics being more alike North Italy.

Sawyer's history degree was specifically focused on Europe. He doesn't feel comfortable writing about what he doesn't know and he didn't have the time and inclination to learn about the history of the Asian and African continents to the degree with which he learned about Europe.

In addition to that, any depiction of tribal Africans gives liberals the ick.

Honest Hearts made me uncomfortable. What was the purpose of using every negative trope related to indigenous people in one game (cargo cults, mighty whitey, the ignorance and naivete of the NPCs and even naming a quest after the white man's burden)?

I don't think it would have been particularly interesting to suggest that, contrary to how the majority of various low-tech, low-contact cultures around the world have dealt with the arrival of cultures with significantly higher technology and scientific knowledge -- that the tribes of the Great Basin have some special psychological makeup that inures them to the same sorts of cultural processes.

(in the many years since 2011, Sawyer has bent the knee and apologized for this depiction in Honest Hearts)

This is from... 2001? Holy shit, nothing really changed.

 

[Roguey]

This is from... 2001? Holy shit, nothing really changed.

That's just his forum join date, that post is from 2012 during the Project Eternity kickstarter. He's talking about Pallegina.

But yes, liberalism has been on this kick for quite a while.

 

[FreeKaner]

>Vailians
>Not niggers
Are you fucking blind?

Are you Italian? I know your type is a bit sensitive about your tanned skin and generally swarthy features but Vailians are nothing but extra-tanned Italians, they haven't got the slightest African thing about them, its politics, language, culture, fashion and even history is wholly and completely based on Italians (and Spanish in case of Old Vailia). It's patently obvious that they just made them black because Vailia is around equator and someone's autism didn't let them make them brown-skinned like Italians and are instead of black like those who live around equator.

 

[Poseidon00]

>Vailians
>Not niggers
Are you fucking blind?

Are you Italian? I know your type is a bit sensitive about your tanned skin and generally swarthy features but Vailians are nothing but extra-tanned Italians, they haven't got the slightest African thing about them, its politics, language, culture, fashion and even history is wholly and completely based on Italians (and Spanish in case of Old Vailia). It's patently obvious that they just made them black because Vailia is around equator and someone's autism didn't let them make them brown-skinned like Italians and are instead of black like those who live around equator.

It should be obvious they aren't really black because the feature they are most known for is a legitimate trading company, and not rampant crime.

 

[Larianshill]

I wonder how the pre-orders are doing.

 

[Infinitron]

>Vailians
>Not niggers
Are you fucking blind?

Are you Italian? I know your type is a bit sensitive about your tanned skin and generally swarthy features but Vailians are nothing but extra-tanned Italians, they haven't got the slightest African thing about them, its politics, language, culture, fashion and even history is wholly and completely based on Italians (and Spanish in case of Old Vailia). It's patently obvious that they just made them black because Vailia is around equator and someone's autism didn't let them make them brown-skinned like Italians and are instead of black like those who live around equator.

I believe Old Vailia is actually not on the equator and the people who became the Vailians migrated from the north at some point. Same story with the white jungle-dwelling Aedyrans.

 

[FreeKaner]

I believe Old Vailia is actually not on the equator and the people who became the Vailians migrated from the north at some point. Same story with the white jungle-dwelling Aedyrans.

It's stated in the game that "Ocean Folk", which is the race of the Vailians, is from near equator as Old Vailia is around there. Vailian Republics, which is a colony of Old Vailia is to north, which got separated from Old Vailia after they split apart in civil war and became bunch of city-states.

 

[FreeKaner]

It should be obvious they aren't really black because the feature they are most known for is a legitimate trading company, and not rampant crime.

On the other hand, have you ever been in a restaurant with bunch of Italians? They are louder than any pack of any other race, even Arabs don't hold a candle to their absolutely maddening cacophony.

 

[Poseidon00]

Honest Hearts made me uncomfortable. What was the purpose of using every negative trope related to indigenous people in one game (cargo cults, mighty whitey, the ignorance and naivete of the NPCs and even naming a quest after the white man's burden)?

I don't think it would have been particularly interesting to suggest that, contrary to how the majority of various low-tech, low-contact cultures around the world have dealt with the arrival of cultures with significantly higher technology and scientific knowledge -- that the tribes of the Great Basin have some special psychological makeup that inures them to the same sorts of cultural processes.

(in the many years since 2011, Sawyer has bent the knee and apologized for this depiction in Honest Hearts)

So he is smarter than he pretends to be nowadays. He just doesn't want the almost inevitably career-ending pressure of swimming against the tides. I read a lot of more recent statements differently in light of this knowledge. I can understand it. Some of us were made to just vibe, not fight culture wars.

 

[Litmanen]

It should be obvious they aren't really black because the feature they are most known for is a legitimate trading company, and not rampant crime.

On the other hand, have you ever been in a restaurant with bunch of Italians? They are louder than any pack of any other race, even Arabs don't hold a candle to their absolutely maddening cacophony.

Not everyone, not every region, not everywhere.

 

[Dayyālu]

They are louder than any pack of any other race

Southerners aren't Italian, they barely count as European. I'd swap every day North Africans for Neapolitans, at least one believes in Jinns and sometimes work and the other believes in San Gennaro and living on welfare.

Precision, FreeKaner. Precision.

 

[Litmanen]

They are louder than any pack of any other race

Southerners aren't Italian, they barely count as European. I'd swap every day North Africans for Neapolitans, at least one believes in Jinns and sometimes work and the other believes in San Gennaro and living on welfare.

Precision, FreeKaner. Precision.

Ah pover'Italia...

 

[Heroic Liberator]

They are louder than any pack of any other race

Southerners aren't Italian, they barely count as European. I'd swap every day North Africans for Neapolitans, at least one believes in Jinns and sometimes work and the other believes in San Gennaro and living on welfare.

Precision, FreeKaner. Precision.

Piedmontese-loving hands typed this.

 

[FreeKaner]

They are louder than any pack of any other race

Southerners aren't Italian, they barely count as European. I'd swap every day North Africans for Neapolitans, at least one believes in Jinns and sometimes work and the other believes in San Gennaro and living on welfare.

Precision, FreeKaner. Precision.

I indeed have a soft spot for those Venetians and Milanese, whose personality comes with a reserved dignity and speak with eloquent measure. Nevertheless Venetians seem extinct as a people and Milan seems it is made of all sorts of Italians now. That and promises of books that are never delivered.

 

[Poseidon00]

I never liked how the nations of PoE felt like very clear knockoffs of historical cultures. With all that history knowledge, come up with something believable and unique, man. Phoning it in like this tanked interest in PoE1.

 

[Litmanen]

They are louder than any pack of any other race

Southerners aren't Italian, they barely count as European. I'd swap every day North Africans for Neapolitans, at least one believes in Jinns and sometimes work and the other believes in San Gennaro and living on welfare.

Precision, FreeKaner. Precision.

Piedmontese-loving hands typed this.

Or Venetian.